Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Sun Hongyang Deng Wei Intern Reporter Hu Ziao
After the Spring Festival, the familiar traffic jam scene returned. The Lantern Festival coincides with the weekend, and around the major business districts in Beijing, some ring roads and liaison lines are "red" again on the map software. However, many empty bus lanes are in strong contrast to the crowded social lanes. Some members of the public have called for private cars to be allowed to enter bus lanes on non-working days. In this regard, experts suggest that to improve the utilization rate of bus lanes, it should also be managed flexibly, and vehicles with high passenger capacity should be allowed to enter under the premise of bus priority.
Dedicated lanes and social lanes "two days of ice and fire"
On weekends, the traffic pressure on the roads around key business districts and scenic spots increases significantly, and vehicles entering the parking lot can discharge hundreds of meters. In these hot spots, social lanes and bus lanes often have the phenomenon of "ice and fire".
On the afternoon of Saturday, February 4, in the north-to-south direction of Tiantan Road in Dongcheng District, the congested ordinary lanes and bus lanes were in stark contrast.
February 4th is Saturday. At 15 o'clock on the same day, in the north to south direction of Tiantan East Road, among the three social lanes, two straight-going lanes of vehicles have been lined up from one intersection to the next, and rough statistics show that there are sixty or seventy cars. Within 20 minutes, a total of 6 buses passed by, all on different routes.
At 17 o'clock on Saturday, February 4, in the south to north direction of Puhuangyu Road in Fengtai District, congestion occurred on ordinary lanes, and the bus lane was unblocked.
At about 17 o'clock on the same day, there was a long queue of vehicles driving from Guomao to Yong'anli on Jianguomenwai Street. It is close to the neighboring trade business district, and many motor vehicles leave the international trade through this road. At the traffic light at the intersection of Jianguomenwai Street and Dongdaqiao Road, the reporter observed that the end of the line could not be seen in the social lane, and some vehicles had to wait for two or three rounds of traffic lights to pass, while the bus lane rarely passed by. The bus lane opened from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and within 15 minutes, only one bus No. 58 passed.
Among the many business districts visited by the reporter, the utilization rate of bus lanes in the Chongwenmen business district section is relatively high. Chongwenmen Station is the starting station of buses 111 and 108, and there are many buses passing through Chongwenmen Inner Street. Standing at the intersection of Chongwenmen, buses in four directions are basically uninterrupted.
Some lanes are not open during peak traffic hours
The bustling Third Ring Road, bus lanes are open in the morning and evening rush hour, and the same is true on weekends. However, the opening hours of the bus lanes on weekends are not the peak traffic of buses.
At 17:20 on February 4, the reporter saw in the south of the East Third Ring Road Shuangjing Bridge that the congestion of the two social lanes on the inside of the north to south direction was obvious, and a bus could only be seen in about two minutes on the outermost bus lane. Except for the 938 Express and 976 lines, the number of passengers on most lines is in the dozens, or even single digits.
A fleet manager who operates the third ring line told reporters that weekends and weekday peak passenger flow hours are not the same, weekend passenger flow peak is generally between 9 o'clock and 16 o'clock, "There is less passenger flow commuting, we must also reasonably allocate capacity and appropriately adjust the operating interval." ”
At about 17:40 on Saturday, February 4, in the east of the Chengshousi Bridge of the South Third Ring Road, due to the congestion of ordinary lanes, some non-bus vehicles drove onto the bus lane and added a plug under the overpass to block the passage of buses.
Even if the dedicated lane is opened, the bus will "stuck". At 17:45 on February 4, the two social lanes east of the South Third Ring Road Chengshousi Bridge and east to west were slow. The outermost bus lane of this section is marked with the opening time of "7-9" and "17-19". At this time, the bus lane is very "clean", standing on the overpass and looking at the end of the convoy, you can vaguely see the tall bus figure. The reporter observed that in this curved road section on the third ring road, due to the congestion of the social lane, many private cars broke into the outermost bus lane, and soon reached the monitoring range and entered the social lane, which further aggravated the congestion.
At about 17:40 on Saturday, February 4, in the east of the Chengshousi Bridge of the South Third Ring Road, the ordinary lane was seriously congested, and no cars passed by the bus lane.
Is a 24-hour lane necessary?
There are fewer buses, and it is also more obvious on the Fushi Road expressway. At 11:10 on February 5 (Sunday), the reporter drove into Fushi Road from east to west, and the speed dropped to about 20 kilometers per hour. The expressway didn't go fast.
At this time, the queued vehicles in the two social lanes could not see the end, but the 24-hour bus lane was empty. Until the reporter drove out from the exit of Yangzhuang East Street, for ten minutes, there was not a single bus passing by. Along the way, there are multiple BRT stops on the elevated section, and there are only one or two waiting passengers on each platform. The reporter then observed near the exit, from 11:35 to 12:05, only 4 buses passed through the elevated section in half an hour.
"Bus Rapid Transit doesn't operate 24 hours a day, so why do bus lanes have to be open 24 hours a day?" Ms. Liu, a resident near Shougang, was puzzled. On the "leadership message board" of People's Daily News, in recent years, some citizens have suggested that the Fushi Road elevated 24-hour bus lane be changed to a limited time, and the relevant departments will respond to study it, but it has not changed so far.
What is the difficulty of "lifting weekend restrictions on bus lanes"?
In fact, calls for "lifting weekend restrictions on busways" have been going on for years. Almost every year, deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference put forward relevant proposals. In the past two years, industry experts have also suggested adjusting bus lanes to "bus priority lanes". What is the difficulty of implementing these recommendations?
A person in charge of a traffic management department said frankly that if all the time of the allocated bus lanes is revised and the law enforcement system is adjusted, it is bound to invest a lot of manpower and material resources. More importantly, there are currently no regulations for bus lanes in the transportation industry, and even if adjustments are proposed, they are not coercive, and in practice, law enforcement departments can only follow the "superior law" of the Ministry of Public Security. Therefore, the change of "special road" to "priority road", although there is only a difference between two words, the implementation is not small.
In response to citizens' questions, the Municipal Public Security Traffic Management Bureau introduced that according to the provisions of the Road Traffic Law, if a road is designated as a special lane, only the specified vehicles are allowed to pass in the special lane. If the bus lane is marked with a bus dedicated time, it means that other vehicles are not allowed to enter the lane during the limited period; If the special time is not marked, it means that other vehicles are not allowed to enter the lane for 24 hours throughout the day, including Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. Those who use special lanes in violation of the regulations shall be fined 200 yuan and no points shall be demerited.
On the bus lane of Guangzhong Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai, the sign board above the road indicates the opening time of the morning and evening peaks, and at the same time marks "except for non-empty passenger buses with more than 20 seats" and "except Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays".
The reporter's interview found that not all large cities have such regulations. A brother from Shanghai told reporters that during weekends and holidays, Shanghai allows private cars to use bus lanes. In the photo he provided, a blue sign hanging above the road in Guangzhong Road in Shanghai indicates the morning and evening peak opening hours of the special lane, and also indicates "except for non-empty passenger cars with more than 20 seats" and "except Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays".
Opinion: Bus priority is not contradictory to open lanes
"First of all, it should be clear that the purpose of zoning bus lanes is not just to ensure bus travel, but to improve the efficiency of the entire transportation system." Liu Daizong, director of the China Sustainable Cities Division at the World Resources Institute, said that at peak passenger flow, a bus can pull fifty or sixty people, and even if it passes one in a minute, the cross-sectional passenger flow of the lane may be higher than passing 40 cars. This is also the meaning of the existence of bus lanes. Conversely, passenger flow is low and bus lanes are rich in capacity, allowing some vehicles to share resources.
HOV Drive in New York. Photo courtesy of Liu Daizong
Liu Daizong introduced that in some cities in France and the United States, bus lanes have been upgraded to HOV lanes, that is, high-load lanes. The Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation stipulates that in addition to buses, carpooled vehicles carrying no less than a certain number of people, buses with 8 or more seats, transportation company vehicles operating on fixed lines, school buses, public welfare passenger vehicles, etc., can use HOV lanes. From the perspective of travel efficiency, this measure can encourage everyone to carpool. This is the same concept that transportation experts have proposed in recent years as "bus priority lanes".
HOV Drive in Toronto, Canada. Photo courtesy of Liu Daizong
Therefore, as long as it is scientific and moderate, bus priority and open lanes are not contradictory. As for whether to cancel the special lane restrictions on weekends, Liu Daizong believes that this needs to be supported by scientific data analysis, refined and flexible management methods, starting from high-load vehicles, allowing cars carrying more than 3 people to drive.